Sony is reportedly remaking The Last of Us for PS5 as it chases big hits

Sony is reportedly working on another remake of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us — first released in 2013 for the PlayStation 3, followed by a PlayStation 4 remaster in 2014. The latest version of the game is intended for the PlayStation 5 and would reportedly feature the gameplay and graphical improvements introduced in 2020’s The Last of Us Part II, Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg reports the remake’s status is part of a broader reorganization at Sony’s first-party development studios, which are struggling with the conflicting goals of the company’s desire for larger, blockbuster-scale projects from its major studios and the smaller, less lucrative passion projects from its smaller teams.

The Last of Us remake is one such project. The remake was originally started by Sony’s Visual Arts Service Group, an internal team that largely provided support work for art, animation, and development to Sony’s other studios on bigger projects like Spider-Man or the Uncharted games. But the Visual Arts Service Group aspired to work on its own games, and it figured that lower-cost remakes of popular Sony franchises would be a good place to start — leading to rumors last year of a “secret” new Sony studio in San Diego.

But Sony reportedly largely ignored those efforts. It tentatively approved the Visual Arts Service Group’s remake project but refused to give the team an expanded budget for the remake. The project was then moved back to series creator Naughty Dog, where it’s apparently still in development — with the Visual Arts Service Group assisting, as usual.

It’s worth noting that all these projects are still apparently fairly early on, so there’s plenty of time for Sony’s plans here to change regarding if, when, or how these games actually are released.

Bloomberg’s report notes similar issues with Sony’s Bend Studio, the developer of Days Gone. The Bend team reportedly tried to pitch a sequel to the open-world zombie game but was rejected — instead being tasked with helping Naughty Dog on a multiplayer project and a new Uncharted game. Bend’s leadership was apparently so concerned about being fully absorbed into Naughty Dog’s team that it asked to be removed from those projects; it’s now reportedly working on a new game of its own.